


Beget Peace

by Mayarene Rose (Paradise_of_Mary_Jane)



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Episode s03e02 The Headband, Gen, Post Series, outsider's POV
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-22
Updated: 2017-02-22
Packaged: 2018-09-26 06:27:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9871433
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Paradise_of_Mary_Jane/pseuds/Mayarene%20Rose
Summary: A few months after Firelord Ozai fell, the Avatar makes his way into a small town at the edge of the Fire Nation.





	

**Author's Note:**

> *comes out from under a table* hey y'all, i'm a little late to the party (or a lot late but who's counting) but this fic is a result of me procrastinating all my responsibilities in favor of rewatching atla. so yeah. I have a few other things floating around but this is the only one that actually got done. Please enjoy!

A few months after Firelord Ozai fell, the Avatar makes his way into a small town at the edge of the Fire Nation.

 Onji knows this because in the past few days, it’s the only thing anyone can talk about. There are those of course, who could do nothing but curse his name. He had humiliated the Fire Nation, they would say, and had placed a banished prince on the throne. No one quite knew what happened to Firelord Ozai but it is very clear that he is no longer Firelord.

 Most people though, most people are relieved. It had stopped mattering who won and how and why, only that the sons of the Fire Nation can finally come home safely, as the Avatar and Firelord Zuko had promised. The war has lasted a hundred years and it’s the only thing any of them can remember. It’s nice, Onji thinks, to have something more than a letter telling of a dead son or daughter or brother or sister’s honor in serving the Firelord. To be able to feel their arms around you again and know that they are here to _stay._

 He passes by Onji’s house as he walks the street and it’s odd, isn’t it? The Avatar was basically royalty in her mind. It’s odd for someone so powerful to be walking the streets freely instead of hidden away in a palanquin.

 (It’s odd in itself that the Avatar is in her town. They are in the mainland yes, but just at the very edge. They aren’t huge trade centers nor are they home to any important lord or lady. They are a small town with not very many people. They are not the most insignificant town in the mainland but they are close enough to it.)

 He passes by her house and Onji had leant out of the window despite her parents’ warnings, and she sees _him._

 He is slowly walking hand in hand with a girl from the Water Tribe that also seems oddly familiar. They are picking their way through the crowd that seems to continuously form around them.

 His head is cleanly shaven and he isn’t wearing his headband or any Fire Nation clothes. There is a huge blue arrow displayed on his forehead and on his hands, just like the posters show. It is not the boy she had known, but Onji would recognize those eyes anywhere. She remembers thinking that she’d never see that particular shade of grey ever again and now she understands why.

 A soft “oh” escapes her lips. A part of her thinks she should have known.

 (He had stood apart so much from when he had known her, and he had brought them something that none of them had, or thought they needed. Like a beacon of light in a cave filled with only darkness.)

 Onji feels her mother lean against the window, curious and disdainful at the same time.

 “He’s here,” Onji says. “The Avatar.”

 “Disgraceful,” her mother says. She leans out to look out of the window and there is only distaste in her expression as she watches the Avatar lift children into the air as if they were birds. “The rumors are right. The Avatar is nothing but an arrogant brat.”

 “You’re wrong,” Onji says, looking away from the window and into her mother’s eyes. “I think he’s kind.”

 Her mother stares her. The look in her eyes is the same one Onji received when the headmaster had told her parents that she had been caught with two dozen other children at a secret dance party. The same look everyone had been giving her since that day. The day Onji decided that she liked dancing and that laughter is something she deserves.

 “I think he’s kind,” Onji says again. “And I think that what he’s doing will be good for us.”

  _There was a boy who came to a Fire Nation school once. He wore a headband around his head and talked of a peaceful Air Nation and moved as if he were a part of the air. He had stayed for only two days but he had left it better in his wake. I had never heard so much laughter there before and have not seen as many smiles since._

 Right now, the children of the Fire Nation are running across the streets, carefree and full of laughter. Laughter the streets haven’t heard since their grandparents were little children.

 Onji has to believe it was all for the better.

 Her mother’s hand falls on her shoulder, gripping it painfully tight. Onji resists the urge to shake it away.

 “You shouldn’t speak about these things, child,” she says. “The Avatar obviously has you fooled, just as he has the Firelord. What would you know of worldly affairs? You’re just a _child._ ”

 She spits out the last word, like Onji’s youth is supposed to be an insult.

  _The Avatar is a child and he has ended a war,_ Onji wants to shout. _My sisters were children when they went off to war and never came back._

 But her mother would only scoff at that. It was an honor to fight in a war, she would say, and an even greater honor to end it, as long as they fought for the right side. It would seem that children would never be too young for the honor of war but never old enough for the matters of peace.

 “You’re wrong, mother,” Onji says.

 She does not turn to watch the betrayal morph her mother’s expression into something unrecognizable, instead opting to looking out the window again. The Avatar has gone but there are traces of him left behind. The perfectly arranged Fire Nation banners are slightly disheveled and there are children on the streets, running around with their arms spread like birds, as if they’re about to take flight.

 The air is lighter, somehow, and the sun’s rays are warm instead of scorching hot.

 For the first time in Onji’s memory, they are safe, and perhaps, one day soon, they will also be happy.

 The Avatar has given her hope. It is the thing she holds closest to her heart.

**Author's Note:**

> so whad'ya think?  
> *hides under table*


End file.
